Alliance member John Doran, receiving his ‘draw’ prize from David Moore, sponsor, proprietor of Letterkenny Driving Range at the Glebe. Also pictured, Alliance Hon. Sec. Mr. Barry Ramsay.

The North West Golf Club, situated at Lisfannon, was shorn of its usual defence of wind and the facile nature of any links course devoid of wind was reflected in the scoring by North Western Alliance members on Saturday.

There was a plethora of scores below and equalling the standard scratch of the course, very nicely set up with well-manicured fairways and fast, true greens. Congratulations to the greenkeeper.

All three had two birdies each to offset two bogeys, and just one stroke behind was former European Amateur champion Brian McElhinney.

Brian was followed by four players on two over par, Paul Duffy, Luke Bradley, and James Lindsey, and keeping those three company was Michael McGeady, who had arrived back home at 2.30 a.m. from his exploits in qualifying for the next stage of the European Tour qualifying school in France.

Congratulations Michael and best of luck. Despite the late hour, Michael again showed his allegiance to the Alliance [both he and his father Cahir being past Captains] by turning up for his 8.00 a.m. tee off time.

Thus it was on the inward nine that the competition really got going with birdies galore. The first to fall away were Paul Duffy and Luke Bradley, whilst Dan Hines played it in one over, Paul McGuigan recording one under and Kealan Quigg two under gross.

James Lindsay signed for three under but it was Michael McGeady who took the honours as he threw off his tiredness to birdie 10th, 11th, 15th and 17th and, by parring the rest, returned a four under par gross home nine to win on B.O.T. from Kealan Quigg.

James Lindsay surprised even himself to take the nett prize from playing partner Paul Doherty with both scoring 38 points.

After two competitions played in the Golfer of the Year table, Michael McGeady leads the gross section on 20pts with James Lindsay on 17pts.while in the Nett section, Clive Davison has 12pts and James Lindsay is again in second place on 10pts.

One of our members suffered an unfortunate accident at the 14th and everyone will be relieved to know that he is well, apart from a badly swollen and sore ankle. Get well soon.

Nett

James Lindsay (1) North West G.C. 38 pts [b.o.t.]

Paul Doherty (6) North West G.C. 38 pts

Odran McGettigan (25) Strabane G.C. 37 pts [b.o.t.]

Michael Houston (12) City Of Derry G.C. 37 pts [b.o.t.]

Eugene Corry (10) Newtownstewart G.C. 36 pts [b.o.t.]

Clive Davison (12) Portsalon G.C. 36 pts; b.o.t.

Gross

1st Michael McGeady (+4) North West G.C. 68 [b.o.t.]

2nd Kealan Quigg (+1) North West G.C. 68

3rd Paul McGuigan (1) Foyle G.C. 69

4th Brian McElhinney (scr) North West G.C. 71 [b.o.t.]

5th Dan Hines (scr) City of Derry 71

6th Luke Bradley (4) North West G.C. 74

‘2’s’ D Forbes, R Smallwood, J Kelly B Wallace

There are still places available on the time-sheet for anyone wishing to join and a new section this year is for those golfers who wish to make up a fourball on the day but are not actually members of the Alliance. Green fees apply.

Northwestern Golfing Alliance seeks members

The new season began under the captaincy of Brian Wallace from Dunfanaghy Golf Club. It was as usual a perfect day for playing golf. A slight breeze caused no real concerns but just enough wind to make the day interesting.

Brian tames the wind at Rosapenna

The prestigious St. Patricks Plate — postponed from 28th November — took place on the Sandy Hills course in Rosapenna at the weekend with the continuing work on making that links even better necessitating in the competition being reduced to 16 holes.